THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 467 
pearance of the enemy, before a man was killed or wound- 
ed on either fide. He was graceful in his perfon and car- 
riage, but a liar and drunkard beyond all conception. 
Tue practice which obtains at Sennaar of murdering all 
the collaterals of the royal family, feems to be but a part 
of the fame idea * which prevails in Abyflinia, of confining 
the princes all their lives upon a mountain. The difference 
of treatment, in. cafes perfectly parallel, feems to offer a 
juft manner of judging, how much the one people furpaffes 
the other in barbarity of manners and difpofition. In Abyf- 
finia, the princes are confined for life on a mountain, and 
in Sennaar they are murdered in their father’s fight, in the 
palace where they were born. 
As in Abyfiinia, fo neither in Sennaar do women fucceed 
tofovereignty. No hiftorical reafon is given for this exclu- 
fion. It probably was a rule brought from El-aice, their 
own country, before founding their monarchy, for the very 
contrary prevailed among the Shepherds, whom they fub- 
dued in Atbara. The princeffes, however, in Abyflinia, are 
upon a much better footing than thofe of Sennaar. Thefe 
Jaft have no ftate nor fettled income, and are regarded very 
little more than the daughters of private ‘individuals. | A- 
mong that crowd of women which I faw the two nights I 
was in the palace, there were many princefles, fifters of the 
king, as I was after told. At that time they were not di- 
ftinguifhable by their manners, nor was any ‘afppmep leis 
mark of refpect fhewn them. 3 2 
3N2 THE 
* Bear, like the Turk, no brother near the throne. Porm 
